A major problem involved with carrying a backpack is that a heavy load in the backpack tends to severely compress the shoulders of the user and cause several adverse effects such as but not limited to restriction in the movement of the neck and the shoulders of the backpack wearer, intense pain in the shoulder muscle, severe restriction in the ability to breath and irreversible damage to the vertebrate. These problems may be minimizes if the backpack is positioned in a proper position according to the wearer torso length in a manner that shifts much of the weight of the burden to a healthier position i.e. to the waist area. If the backpack is positioned below the waist, at the buttock area, or above the waist, at the middle back area, health damage may occur to the wearer.
Some suggested solutions are known in the art. Most of them require disassembling parts of the backpack in order to uncover internal mechanisms that were implemented within the backpack that allow modifying the length of the shoulders straps.
Some of the prior art backpacks comprise an inner mechanism that includes a set of predefined bars, each bar designates a size (e.g. S, M, L, XL), wherein the wearer connects the shoulders straps to a specific bar according to the chosen size. These solutions are restricted to specific bars and do not provide solution to sub-middle sizes.
Another mechanism available in the market is based on an inner button that upon unlocking of a button, a sliding mechanism is unlocked that allows the wearer to adjust the shoulders straps height by sliding them upward and downward along the sliding mechanism manually and re-locking the button for fixing the desired height.
Both mechanisms described above, require disassembly and reassembly of different components of the backpack and as such are somewhat cumbersome and complicated to operate. In addition, as all of current solutions require disassembly of parts of the backpack when adjusting the shoulders straps, the adjustment process cannot be performed on the body of the wearer, and thus it may require several attempts until reaching the proper length.
The following Patents and Patent applications suggest some improvements in the backpack frames and carriers DE102014006194 (A1), FR2664139 (A1), CN203913832 (U), TWM477201 (U), KR20140066951 (A), KR20130009108 (A), and U.S. Pat. No. 5,503,314 (A).
The adjustment mechanism in most of them requires complicated engagement with different layers of the backpack, disassembling and reassembling of different components of the backpack. In some solutions, substantive parts of the backpack are taken apart for changing the length of the straps, and then these parts are re-assembled after performance of the change. Thus, they all require cumbersome engagement with the backpack components. In addition, the adjustment of the shoulder straps length should be performed on an empty bag and it is performed while the backpack is not being worn, thus, the length is only estimated and not fitted on the body of the wearer and sometimes it requires several attempts in order to fit the length.
Thus, there is still a need in the art for an adjustable backpack that is simple to operate and to modify, that does not required to empty the content of the bag each time that an adjustment is required, and that the adjustment process itself may be performed while the wearer is wearing the backpack so as to insure simple and perfect adjustment to the body dimensions of the wearer in a single adjusting attempt.
The present invention is aimed to provide such a backpack. The backpack of the invention is adjustable and configured to be fitted to different torso lengths so as to optimize the positioning of the backpack to the wearer dimensions in a simple and convenient manner. The fitting of the shoulders straps may be performed while the bag is filled with content and while it is worn on the wearer so as to allow simple and perfect fit to the dimensions of the wearer. The fitting may also be performed while the backpack is not positioned on the wearer according to the wearer preferences. The provided adjusting mechanism allows high sensitivity adjustment in a simple and friendly manner.